What Christa Pike told doctors in first conversation after waking up, as recovery becomes more clear

Death row inmate Christa Pike has woken up following her failed lethal injection attempt, and her first conversation from hospital has now been revealed. 

After two doses of lethal injection failed last week, 50-year-old Pike was said to be in a critical condition and handcuffed to a bed in hospital, having suffered severe damage to her arms. Six days on, it was revealed she is conscious again, and speaking.

In a statement, her attorneys Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason said: “Against all odds, Christa Pike is conscious, speaking, and continues to receive critical medical care. Despite the severe damage she endured to her arms, she is still handcuffed and shackled to the bed. Her recovery is medically unprecedented.”

via Tennessee Department of Correction

Now, Dr Joel Zivot, an anaesthesiologist advising Pike’s legal team, confirmed to the BBC that she has been taken off the ventilator. She is able to communicate in a “basic way” but did not seem to recall the execution attempt. “She has some memories of being in the hospital but no memory, I believe, of the execution attempt,” he said.

Zivot said Pike was able to recall her name and had made an incorrect guess at the date, as she believed that the month was still September.

She remains in the ICU, and her recovery will be anything but a quick one. “Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery,” Pike’s lawyers confirmed yesterday. 

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Her attorneys said they remain grateful for the first responders and the medical team at the hospital “who treated Christa like a human and have provided exceptional care to her”.

They said: “She is the only person known to have survived a complete execution attempt in the US. Christa is a survivor and will take recovery one day at a time. She is currently “guarded” in hospital. 

Dr Joel Zivot added, while speaking to Associated Press, the latest development “bodes well for a good recovery.”

He told the publication: “She’s still in the ICU. She has recovered to a certain degree that she’s able to be off a ventilator and able to speak, but in no way would I announce her free of further serious risk. There are still a lot of bad things that can happen here, even when everyone is doing their job well.”

Pike’s attorneys are set to go to court this week, as they seek to learn more about what happened in the failed lethal injection. They continue to ask the Governor of Tennessee to commute Christa Pike’s sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

For more, like The Tab on Facebook. Featured image via Canva and Tennessee Department of Correction.